Customer Reviews

Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos, 2nd: Tread Your Own Path (Footprint - Travel Guides)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read 3 or 4 guidebooks and this is the only one I purchased new. I was interested in what they had for Vietnam, but not Laos/Cambodia just yet. I have used other Footprint guides, and this was set up similarly but I didn't like it that much. All in all, a few of the suggestions were just outright bad. After having a terrible experience at a place suggested in Hoi An (Cafe des Amis in Hoi An), I was left wondering if the authors even visited each place, or if they just repeated what the proprieters business card read. Also, I disagree with their terrible advice on how to cross the street in Vietnam ("close your eyes and walk" basically is what they said). A few of the other suggestions we checked were closed for business--though that seems to be a common thing with several of the guidebooks we had. After our last really bad restaurant suggestion we decided to put this book away for the remainder of the trip and instead consulted our "Let's Go" book more often.

Bad suggestions aside, I'm sure if we had tried everything they recommended some things were good. I like how this book is organized as far as hotel listings go. As far as restaurants, there are generally a LOT of suggestions but the descriptions are often general/vague, and there's no great way to really know what the top 2 or 3 ideas might be.

Not completely useless, I suppose, since the lengthy historical material is interesting (although the modern part is marred by the rightwing bias). But the rest of it? Since we were going to both Vietnam and Cambodia, I thought it would be useful to have one guide for both countries but there is too little in the way of concrete information to help even with trip planning. Some border crossings are not mentioned, there's no material on birdwatching, the health section is incomplete, as is the section on visas, etc. etc . Very disappointing, especially since I've used Footprint guides before quite happily. I took a look at the Lonely Planet Vietnam guide and kicked myself for not buying that instead.

On the positive side, this guide provides an extensive amount of information. This is also a negative in that it is rather large and heavy particularly when you have it in your knapsack with your camera gear.

I find this book easier to follow and better than lonely planets.
I like the book. Very helpful